Michigan Underwater Divers Club

This was Mack’s first wreck dive of February  and the second for Kevin Ailes. With no ice and no one local ready to dive, Kevin was happy to came down to check out this shallow water wreck site.

The last time Mack dove this site was over 30 years ago and had been interested in seeing the changes over that period of time. Mack said that, back in the day, the water entry points were all natural with shallow slopes and the two ships were on top of each other. The bottom ship was a wooden steam ship and the top one was an old fishing tug that had the superstructure cut away. Thirty years ago the feature point of the wreckage was the tugs’ diesel engine with all its associated components.  My how time changes everything!

The shore line has been dug out and filled in  concrete blocks, making it very steep. It appears that a clam shell bucket was used during this time and a most  of  the wreckage removed.

What was left consists of  junk iron and wood with lots of snag and puncture hazards. There was also a significant current as you moved away from the shoreline into the main body of the river.

Air temperature was 27°F, wind speed was 11 mph and wind chill factor temp was ~11° F. Water about 34/35°F. It did not take long for your gear to freeze up on the surface. Still it was a good dive.  🙂

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This was a great weekend for classroom work if you were not able to get out diving. Several Muddies attended the following PADI & DAN speciality classes at Wolfs’ Marine in Benton Harbor. (Primary Instructor: Dave Tonneman – Benthic Adventures & Tracy David Scott Click)

The three classes were:
1) DAN Basic Life Support: CPR and First Aid
2) DAN Emergency Oxygen for Scuba Diving Injuries
3) PADI Enriched Air /Nitrox

Great classes, excellent instructors and a tremendous learning experience.

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Some times the best visibility you have in a lake or river is when you have it covered in ice. The water is not agitated by wind, boaters, fishermen, water skiing and wave action. So in an effort to capitalize on the possibility of this occurring, Kevin Ailes and company ventured out to video the remains of a shallow wreck in Saugatuck.

Kevin said:  Unfortunately today was not as desired as the visibility was only 5 feet. Still it was a good time and gave us a chance to practice self extraction. Thank you Tyler Knapp for line tending. Looked like we had a flyover by Mack as we were diving.

In South West Michigan, least ways in our area, ice thickness on local lakes has not been to the depths that ice divers associate with being thick enough for groups of  divers to make a hole big enough to have an ice dive.  For this type of group activity having a minimum  of 5 inches of clear ice is desired but having 8 inches or so is better if your using snowmobiles to haul gear and provide emergency transport if necessary. But for ice fishing 4 inches of ice is considered safe.

With that said, it is not unusual for individuals, when making holes to fish or waiting around for the fish to bite, to occasionally drop items that seem to gravitate to the only opening in the ice on the entire lake.  Items like cell phones.

So far this January, Kevin Ailes (Mud Club Member & Wreck Researcher) has been very busy attempting to recover such items with the majority of searches ending with success.

Three Mile Lake – Paw Paw

Carter Lake

The last dive of 2016  and the first dive of January 1, 2017.

Held at Hidden Valley Pond in Niles, Michigan.

Divers in the water:

Kevin Ailes, Joshua Snyder, Larry Steelman, Ken Riemer, Don McAlhany.

Surface Support:

Mary Beth Thar, Lucy Riemer, Jim Scholz

Bob Sweeney and Kevin Ailes were undergoing extreme symptoms of diver withdrawal and needed to get wet quick. Of all the places around they traveled Gull Lake in Ross Town ship. The only place open was the Prairie View boat launch on the north side.  They ended up with about 30 minutes down time even with them inadvertently going their separate ways once underwater.

The max depth obtained was 48′, air temperature was a warm 55° F,  water temperature about 38°F and underwater visibility about 8 feet .  It was a good thing they had compasses with them as the fog settled in making surface visibility rather sketchy.
It was a Fun work up dive before Bob’s News Years Day dive at Gilboa.

Jim Scholz and I were out checking dive sites for the New Years Midnight Dive. Hidden Valley Pond is freezing over but has only ~ 2″ of ice so far. The St. Joseph river at the Marmont street launch is not frozen over except there are small bergs flowing by and its ice along the shore line out ~10 feet. Current does require a tending line though.   Hidden Valley Pond – still needs thicker ice for New Years Diving   Marmont street boat launch – shoreline ice out ~10 feet. Current is strong enough that you need a line and tender. — with Jim Scholz.

Today’s dive was in Niles but the current below the dam was very fast, the water high and visibility VERY low. So we went above the dam to the Bond street kayak launch where the visibility looked good UNTIL you went in and disturbed the soft muck then visibility sort of sucked.  In the areas where you were shallow and the sun was out, the visibility was  several feet.  Pretty slim picking due to the heavy silt layer and resultant  zero viz.  We did manage to have a couple of take homes items. Water temperature was almost wet suit at~ 42-44F°. In the water today was Jim Schulz, Karen Mann, and Mack.